Comment on Enjoy the parties, lament the human sacrifice

• sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Not so fast. A solitary example of it happening once in Roman times and people writing about how they didn’t like it seems to show the opposite – it didn’t happen as a rule, with the Romans at least. Compare this to the Aztecs.

  The gladiators certainly resulted in human death and if you wanted to count it as that, I’d certainly agree. Although it is interesting that the Romans didn’t consider it sacrifice, and it differs in character from directly sacrificing someone.

  I am more curious about Pliny the Elder being sure that the pagans in Gaul and Britain practicing human sacrifice. Was that real, or invented? How about Carthage?

  What about Greece? Is that where we get the trope of virgins sacrificed to a volcano (or the Oracle?) I don’t know the history.

  original